


Hero in Distress

by Calla_Lilalma



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Background Established Lenalee Lee/Allen Walker, I just want a fic where Lavi is smitten with Kanda, Kanda is not a damsel in distress, Lavi is a Mess, Lenalee is the Mom Friend, M/M, They are not teenagers, he's just in distress because he works in retail too much, let me have this, overprotective!Alma, overprotective!Lenalee, risks of characters being occ, this whole fic is a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 12:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13811373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calla_Lilalma/pseuds/Calla_Lilalma
Summary: Wanting to date someone is easy.Asking out someone is admittedly a little harder.Throw in the fact that you’re a superhero and your crush is a civilian? Those things becomekind of a bitch.Well, welcome to Lavi’s existence; where everything was messy since day one and it keeps on going.





	Hero in Distress

**Author's Note:**

> Hei to the one brave reader that will read this! You're a kind soul and thank you!  
> Well, to start, I might have watched a lot of Marvel movies and various superhero media in general (if my boku no hero academia fics are any indication) and i'm not ready to move on yet. Needless to say I had fun ripping off those cliches!
> 
> Secondly, I honestly planned to make this a simple short 5k funny fic. Well the simple and short are thrown out the window. The funny part depends on you who will read this.
> 
> Lastly I want to make a disclaimer; It's been a long ass time since I have seen the D.Gray-Man anime! I read the manga but we all know how updates on that go. I saw Hallow when it aired (more like Hollow, because that's how it left me, amirite? Generally the Alma Karma Arc has left me traumatised since the first time I read it!) As for the first anime? oh boy, let's just not pick this subject up. So I put the risk of the characters being ooc in the tags just in case people don't like this. I'm saying it here too, so we're all square with each other and have fun in this silly mess of a fic I wrote for my OTP!
> 
> Comments and Kudos are welcome! :)  
> Enjoy!

**_‘The authorities have captured the group responsible for the heists occurred the past two months, with the help of the popular vigilante Scorpion who was working with the police. We are live with the police commissioner as she addresses the media.’_ **

_A brunette woman with strict presence stands at the podium, flashes of the cameras present flash her face every millisecond._

_“The group that calls itself ‘the Robinhoods’ were captured in the early hours of this morning, as they were making their escape with their leverage, meaning 3 million dollars in cash. With the help of the vigilante Scorpion, who informed us about their next target of operation and their willingness to fight in the first line of fire, the criminals were apprehended. So, along with expressing my pride of the brave and hardworking officers that were by my side, I want to publicly express my gratitude towards them. Thank you for protecting this city. Now, any questions?”_

“He wasn’t the one that had pulled three all-nighters trying to decipher their pattern, was he?” He takes another piece of his peperoni pizza and changes the channel to a trashy reality show just as the front door was unlocked.

Lenalee enters the apartment like it was her own, and looking disappointed at the condition it is in.

“Lavi, since when have you cleaned the house?” she asks.

He scratches his chin, noting the faint stubble that has started growing. “Depends, what day is it today?”

“Lavi!”

“Okay okay, I was kidding Lena! Don’t need to frown that cute little face of yours. Everything is under control!” Lavi laughs and eyes the embarrassingly  large pile of dirty clothes from the living room and, much to their disgust, kitchen and throwing the dirty shirt nearest to him towards the bathroom and failing as it lands on the floor just near its door . He turns to his friend and opens his arms, scorching hot pizza slice still in his hand. He eats it before the hot, delicious cheese can drip on the couch, wincing as his sides sting from the sudden movement.

Lenalee’s face contorts into a grimace of utter disgust with hints of worry.

“Would it kill you to just move?” He scolds tiredly; they’ve had this conversation too many times to counts (Lavi actually had though- and it’s 62, current one included).

“I don’t think I can stand up for more than ten seconds. Fifteen if I have actual motivation.” He grins, mouth full of pizza.

Lena seems to reconsider his long-time friendship with him, scrunches her nose and thins her lips, done with what she’s living.

“Go change. We’re going out.”

“But I am exhausted! I haven’t showered in,” he sniffs his shirt, “three and a half days. And sleep! I want to sleep!” he smiles easily, used to the way Lenalee seems to want to kick him in the dick with her super powered legs.

She crosses her arms in front of her chest and cocks her hip. The move might seem innocent,  but Lavi knows her long enough to understand the underlining threat; thus, he grumpily stands up and proceeds to make himself a presentable human being, looking at this messed up bed longingly.

After a too throughout shower, he comes back dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt with a nerdy historical joke on it. He catches his friend watching the news replaying the commissioner’s earlier declaration, still standing in likely disgust to not go near his furniture at this point.

When she senses him come in, she changes it.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already seen it.” he sighs.

Her gaze turns sympathetic, “Oh Lavi…”

“It’s fine Lena,” he waves her off with a charming laugh that even in his own ears sounds forced and tired, “It’s not like I was actively there, you know. I just, traced the geographical patterns, traced more than twenty license plates, and put trackers on them at risk of being caught. No big deal…”

Lenalee didn’t say anything; she just let him vent, “And I just learnt that they were arrested! Dude didn’t even dropped by to say a thanks or anything. And he works at a burger joint, if he’d let a yearlong coupon or something, it’d be fine.”

He grabs his keys and wallet and puts an arm around her small shoulder. She pats his head, ruffling his red hair, “It’s not about the fame, you know. It’s about-”

“-the greater good, yada yada. I know Lena. But, is a thanks really that hard? Without me, most of them would be just catching pickpockets and shit like that. If I walk the villain road, you are all screwed.” His laugh is cut short when she lightly punches him in the ribs.

Again, super strength, so the ‘light’ punch isn’t so light. And he already has an injury from a case so it’s even worse.

“Don’t say that ever again!” she scolds him like a child, “Now, put one foot after the other because we’re late and Allen is waiting for us.”

“Lena! I just got Hero-dumped and you’re still gonna make me go out?” he whines but his body complies and follows her to the door, “I should really take the duplicate key from you.” he mumbles.

“Don’t you dare.” She points a manicured finger at him, “Unless of course you want me to break in your house to make sure you’re okay.”

He whines her name once more but otherwise he stays silent. He’s sure that she’d do that and besides, it was nice to know that there was someone that’ll make sure he  didn’t die of sleep deprivation or in the least find his body and arrange a funeral.

Lenalee takes him to a nearby coffee shop, only four blocks away from his apartment, that he visits frequently when he’s not working in the Museum, or ‘working’ in the fight against crime. She makes him walk fast and with long strides, which he achieves effortlessly, yet it’s adorable how she tries to keep up with him. He may be sitting in a chair or on the floor for a week or so, but he’s still field trained to regain the muscle memory.

The café is pretty crowded, like a popular chain store would be, so it’s bothersome to navigate amongst the crowd. The moment they enter, the smell of coffee, various fragrances  and the sound of chatter and typing keyboards hit his senses, taking him out of his half dead mode. Their friend and Lenalee’s semi-secret boyfriend waves at them with a bright smile that Lavi cannot help but reciprocate.

“Hey, sorry we’re late.” Lenalee apologizes and glares at Lavi, “I had to drag him out of his cave.”

“It’s not a cave—”

“She’s right Lavi, your apartment looks like a pigsty, even with all the high tech stuff you have there.” Allen’s voice laced with British accent tells him.

He rolls his uncovered eye, “I hate it when you team up against me. It’s like I actually have parents, or that old man panda is still here.” they all chuckle at his dramatic antics.

“Can’t you make something for this kind of work?”

“Allen.” His girlfriend interrupts, “Don’t put ideas into his lazy head.”

“Lena, I’m an inventor and a technomagician, in case you forgot. Making stuff is literally what I do. It just took the backseat due to recent cases.” He answers, avoiding Lenalee’s exhausted stare.

“How’s your injury?” Allen inquires, changing the topic.

“Fine, stings here and there but in a couple of days, I will be good to be back on the field.”

Both heroes nod, “Lena, I got you your drink.” Allen passes the glass at her.

“Thank you!” she kisses his cheek and Lavi makes a small gag noise.

“Where is my drink, Darling?” he asks, accurately mimicking the other’s british accent.

“Maybe if you’d come sooner, I’d be generous enough to get you. But now, you have to do it all by yourself.”

“You’re the worst villain I’ve ever met, Allen Walker. One day, Lady Justice will prevail.” He announces as he dramatically sighs and get up on his feet, dragging them towards the counter and the not that awful line of costumers.

When it’s his turn, he looks down to the barista to say his order, but his world casually crashes down like glass at the sight of the most beautiful creature he’s ever seen in his short life.

Long bluish black hair that has to be natural with how glossy and silky looking it seems, making his fingers itch to reach out, accompanied with smooth, pale skin, angular jaw and cheekbones, small nose and rosy, so so tempting, lips. The sky blue colour of the work shirt does wonders emphasizing the already existing beauty, although Lavi is sure that the person in front of could pull of even the shit brown colour.

_Fucking Strike!_

He oh so casually reminds himself the way that he’s dressed and curses the heavens that the fates are so cruel with him and didn’t even give him a sign to brush his hair, which is mussed in all known directions like it’s the 80s.

“Oi!” A rough, deep and smooth voice comes from the aforementioned tempting lips and he makes eye contact with the most striking steely blues. It’s like an advanced Medusa; instead of petrifying victims, they turn into piles of hard steel.

Well, they partially succeeded, as a part of Lavi is getting real close to that.

Whether it’s from the attraction he instantly feels, or from the how extremely pissed the barista looks, he’s not inclined to find out if he wants to survive this.

Lavi is sure that if the barista gave 0.00001% less of a shit about the job, Lavi would be getting the cursing of a lifetime and maybe an attempt at strangulation.

He utters the first thing that comes into his mind, nothing close to what he wants to order and where his tastes lie.

“Name.” the siren calls again, demanding an answer.

Lavi stutters his name like the actual moron he’s become the past half a minute and drags his feet to the counter waiting; the genius that all the city’s heroes run to when they get in trouble has gone to vacation and mocks him while sipping mojitos on the beach. That, and the fact that he can feel the stare of the people after him on his shoulders weighting him down, promising a medieval pitchfork persecution of he takes too long.

Glancing at the barista, he uses his photographic and eternal memory in the piece of art that serves him; the way the tied up ponytail floats around with every miniscule move, the lean body that definitely hides gorgeous muscles underneath that shirt, the tight ass that Lavi ranks first in his list on the spot (a good portion of superheroes wear spandex, tights and physique revealing and/or tight clothing, revealing their fit bodies, so he has seen too many asses to not make such a list).

The small card pinned on a muscular chest provides another information that will certainly be cauterized in his brain; the name Kanda.

The cup with his order is placed in front of him absentmindedly and Lavi laments the missed opportunity of even one nanosecond of eye contact.

After an eternity that was actually the most world-changing minute of his life, he slumps on his seat next to Lenalee and sips the extremely bitter coffee.

The lovebirds snap out of their phase when sucks the straw too intensely; after sharing a look, Lenalee breaks the silence, “Are you okay?” she asks attentively.

He throws her a tired and aggravated side eye, “You should have told me that I would meet the love of my life today, I would have worn nicer clothes! AND my good bandana!” he discreetly nods towards the counter.

Turning toward there, Lenalee’s eyes indiscreetly glace at the staff and Allen gives a loud long-suffering groan that would turn heads if there wasn’t so much crowd in the shop.

He eyes Lavi with desperation and he just feels the respect draining from his eyes.

“Please tell me you’re are talking about the blonde one.” Lavi shakes his head and Allen buries his face in his arms, groaning some more.

Lenalee shushes her boyfriend by whacking him in the head and turns to Lavi to indulge him, “I didn’t know Kanda was your type.”

Lavi raises his eyebrows and turns his full attention on her.

“Tell me everything you know. And you obviously know.”

“It’s for your own good Lavi.” Allen mumbles, face still buried, “he’s an asshole.” he shows him his cup and sees the word ‘beansprout’ written on it.

He laughs out laugh and out of sheer curiosity takes a good look at his own  but sees only his name in beautiful but hurried calligraphic letters; too good for his plastic cup.

Leaving Allen to wallow on his own misery, he turns to Lenalee, expectant of detailed information, and thank god she isn’t as difficult.

~~

If anyone makes the comparison, they would say that Lavi came home the polar opposite mood he left it with. And it’s not just the burger joint 50% discount for six months coupons he finds on his doorstep with a note of ‘thanks’.  

He hums a nonsensical and familiar tune as he replays the information he gained today about his most recent and fastest case of crushing hard , even by his standards.

The pieces of information he gathered are pitifully few; he only knows that he’s male, they call him Kanda as the tag says and that Allen obviously dislikes him “He’s a grand scale asshole.” as he repeats over and over in attempts to deter Lavi’s interest. (Doesn’t he know that Lavi’s ‘type’ is even more all over the place than Lavi himself? He’s forgiven Lenalee for that due to her aforementioned and very helpful pieces of information. He doesn’t bother to know why him and Allen have a beef). Also Lenalee,  on the other hand, is on acquaintance transitioning to semi-friends levels, as she is a frequent costumer here to study and Kanda has intervened more than once when she was hit on by some douchebag. (Granted, she could have done it herself but as personal experience shows, her temper is shorter than it seems and nobody wants her to punch a dude through a wall.)

 

He sits on his chair to do his customary surveilling the streets via hacked cameras, reading and memorizing every  credible source of news he can get his hands on online and via the multiple newspapers and magazines he’s subscribed to be brought every day. A couple of things about a recent case of homicides connect with one of his most recent requests, and a pattern he has most certainly seen before.

“Have you found anything?” A voice makes him jump and fall off of his chair.

He looks at the upside down face of a beautiful woman who smirks at his misfortune.

“How long have you been here?” A shrug and a smirk spreads into the half masked bronze face.

“A few minutes ago. God this place is a mess.” she picks up a pair of pants laying on the ground, among all the newspapers and reports and paperwork in general.

“Well, for your information, I am in the process of cleaning this place.” He motions around.

The eyebrow raised at him is seen, even behind the mask.

“It’s a slow, torturing process.” He finishes.

Miss Warp rolls her eyes and throws the pants back into the floor like they burned her skin, “Have you found anything?”

“Oh yes,” He gets up and looks at the multiple screens on the computer, “Noir is back on a spree, it seems, you know doing her thing. Killing police officers that she deems corrupt or useless with extremely old fireweapons.”

“Can you trace them?”

“Of course my dear Lady!” he chirps happily turning in his chair, “You’re just in luck that there are more than a hundred book on 50s and 60s fire weapons, ready to be memorized and already done so by yours truly!” he moves on one of his inventions, a vintage typewriter on the other side of the room and presses the respective keys. Soon, the book he is looking for is ejected by the empty computer tower the typewriter is wired to, like a vending machine for books.

“Impressive.” Miss Warp compliments.

Beaming, he gently pats the device, “I know, isn’t it? any book I put in there is registered and can be used any time with just pressing a few keys. Takes much less space than actually having a library.”

“Right.” She drags. Her pointed stare and raised eyebrow indicates that she’s not in the mood of him showing off, but her quipped up lips show that she’s not mad at least.

He laughs and stretches his arms above his head, “This is the weapon you’re looking for.” He shows her the page with the pictures, “This and a collection of similar ones is demonstrated in the AA Museum, close to the first four murders, for a week more. Bullets are plentiful, so if she runs out of ammo, she will probably be back to reload. Or…” he swipes a few tabs and files on the computer screen, “This is a place where they still make weapons like these. It’s unusual for someone to request them  so if you ask around, you might find something about when she’ll strike again, because they take a day or so to make. It’s also in proximity with the last two killings.” He shows her pictures of the place in order to be able to use her portals to get there.

“What about the cops? Any target she’ll definitely strike soon?”

“A couple.” He enters the police departments’ data bases with ease and without anyone ever finding out, “These are their files. Many of them have altered evidence for money, turned the blind eye for political reasons etc. Her pattern isn’t precise, but I have a feeling that the more grave ones will be first.” He shows her pictures of their homes and streets via security cameras.

When he finally finishes the report and looks at her, she’s looking back with a confused and intrigued face. She looks like an older sister would look at her younger brother.

“What?” he asks nervously.

“Are you alright, Bookman?” she glances briefly at him as she reads the files.

“Of course I am! Handsome as always!” She rolls her eyes at that.

“Firstly, I was standing by you without you noticing before I called you. secondly, you have forgotten to put up you security force field.” She gestures around them with a circle of a finger, “And you haven’t flirted with me once, or even complimented. I find it, weird, to say the least.”

“Aww, you finally caved into my charms? Scandalous Miss Warp, what will your wife think of this? How great of a stepfather will I make?” A glare silences him before he can run his mouth further.

“I’m serious Bookman. I don’t think it’s because the ‘Robinhoods’ case went wrong. Congrats by the way for that.”

“Thanks.” He mumbles, avoiding her gaze.

“And I sincerely hope you haven’t worsened your injury with, I don’t know, going out while not fully healed and you hide it from us.”

“No, of course not! God knows without me, you’d all be useless and the city would be half dead.” He gives her a shit eating grin, almost comically villainous.

Both comment and expression go ignored, “then?”

Lavi bites his lip to hold back the smile from his face, “Oh nothing. Only the fact that I just met the most beautiful man ever born in the whole galaxy. No, scratch that, _galaxies_ , yes plural. _That_ beautiful!” He turns in his chair dreamily until a whack on his head brings him back to the world of mortals. Miss Warp isn’t mad; there is a fond look on her face.

“Don’t get to excited, kid. You can be pretty stupid when you flirt.”

He squawks incredulously, “Me? Name one time I-”

Even before the sentence is completed, more than ten names come out of her mouth with ease, making him shrink in his seat and pout like a child.

“How do you know all this?”

“Dark boots, Crown Clown and others. Especially, Crown Clown. He has quite the betting pool on your adventures. I lost fifty pounds on the Black Jaws incident. How could you mess that up?”

All Lavi does is huff in annoyance.

She ruffles his hair like he’s one of her really young children and lays a strong, supporting hand on his shoulder, “You’re going to be fine. I am almost always rooting for you. Why do you think I lost the money?”

“Thanks.”

“Well, better get on with the case.”

“You’re going to kick her ass.”

“Of course. If it ends quickly I’m bringing you a pot of beef stew. I saw the mountain of pizza boxes in the living room.”

“Scorpion left me burger coupons! Variety!” He waves the proof proudly.

A huff escapes the other, along with a stern, motherly look, “No objections.” A portal is created and Miss Warp leaves to fight crime. He keeps the earpiece on just in case she or someone else might need something, munching guiltily on the pizza he had on the fridge.

Before he forgets, he ‘accidentally’ sends pictures of Allen’s and Lenalee’s dates with the caption ‘Your life is in my hands’ and wheels around with his chair.

~~

Thankfully, it was a slow day for him, and he managed to get some much needed and beloved sleep on his bed for twelve full and wonderful hours. The news on the tv and papers talk and write about the arrest of Noir by Miss Warp, who has superficial wounds and didn’t need heavy medical attention. This doesn’t surprise him as there is a whole fucking pot, full of delicious smelling beef stew that can feed an army, a huge plate of vegetables and other green stuff he had long forgotten the taste of and the words ‘EAT THIS UNTIL DONE BEFORE IT GOES BAD! I WILL CHECK EVERYTHING! PS. CLEAN THIS MESS!’ on a post-it note.

He resumes his day on the guest-room-turned-into-workshop, headphones on with a shuffled playlist of different-genre songs to work on some of his new gadgets and spells and most of all, his first robot with artificial intelligence, for the house work such as cooking and cleaning (as everyone apparently has made it their business worrying over his living conditions-which are fine thank you very much), but also as a form of company in the house. It’d be perfect since he has no time for an actual breathing creature and it’d broaden his knowledge of his capabilities with hopefully less risks.

Yes, he could ask Komui for his help, but first of all: Lavi is a strong independent man and second: he’s seen the other man’s attempts of making robots himself; he’d rather stay away and laugh at the stories Lenalee tells him over drinks.

The work helps pass the time and forget the urge to hack a certain coffee shop’s security cameras and creepily stalk their gorgeous employee. His hero side prevents him from doing so by screaming in his head and if it wasn’t for his injury and pending cases, he’s be straight up storming out and running to the coffee shop in his frayed pajamas and his good bandana askew. The situation is that bad.

For now, until he replenishes his energy and collects the best of his pick up lines and charm, letting himself be immersed in his work.

~~

Once in every blue moon, he goes grocery shopping at the nearest supermarket at odd hours of either the hour they open of the hour that close, to get the basics. Even if his roommate is not yet finished, he is in dire need of some form of nutrition as his body protests. His blood tests are not doing so great either.

However, when he takes notice with his half open and tired eye of the huge crowd inside it, at 7 am in the goddammed morning he instantly turns 180 degrees and leaves, remembering why exactly he doesn’t come. The crowd on discount days has actually given bruises worse than the beating he had taken weeks before that by a villain. The members of the League still give him shit for that at times.

Instead, he searches a small store, no matter how expensive it may be. He has more than enough to spend, due to his multiple sources of income. Stock market investments have become like an easy game of chess to him and he doesn’t remember a time when his ingenious knowledge and hunch failed him in that regard. Along with his salary at the BB Museum’s Library can cover his necessities just fine. If he didn’t adore his two bedroom medium sized apartment and its convenience, he could afford living in the luxurious suburbs.

So, yeah, he can spare twenty more pounds in groceries.

And thank Jesus fucking Christ and every other religious figure of all the religions he doesn’t believe in but he really should, because at the counter of the small convenience store he finds in between the alleys, there is Kanda in his magnificent beauty. Also curse them all the same since it happens when he’s not looking his most attractive.

Lavi is pretty sure he has a heart attack the moment they lock eyes.

All the charm he was building up for a moment like this flies out the window, joining his genius information broker hero self at the mojito beach.

With a slight nod and a hopefully casual _, dare he think cool,_  attitude, he wanders the aisles of the small store, briefly glancing at the other boy when he’s sure he’s not in sight.

This work shirt is a terrible moss green and oh my fucking Gods, why does he pull off every fucking colour in existence. Lavi now has become certain that he’s been wasted here and not being a fucking model.

One deep breath, two deep breaths and Lavi is back at his cool self. He takes his time to pick his products, more time to ogle at Kanda and heads to the basket.

The store has a couple of people, sparring him the awkwardness of that forsaken situation and he watches as Kanda scans previous client’s purchases. Lavi’s calculations can deduct a couple of things from what he sees, besides the obvious fact that every part of Kanda Yuu is perfect and no matter the family background, the gene pool did a miracle on this one.  

Kanda’s hands are well cared, with short trimmed nails that indicate that he uses them a lot, maybe for some sport that he does, a theory proved by the obvious, lean muscle he sees on his arms (praise the inventor of short sleeves!). The callouses show hard work too. But they make him perplexed; how can a person’s hands look so soft and so rough at the same time?

He snaps out of his thoughts about seeing for himself the texture of those hands just before it’s his turn; he doesn’t want to repeat another coffee shop shutdown.

Kanda scans his things without even sparing him a glance, something that inwardly makes him pout. The other’s face is just as impassive as it was the last time Lavi saw him.

His attention is caught by click of his tongue and the frown he sees; turning down, he notices that Kanda scanned the same cereal box twice. At the third time, the frown becomes deeper as he punches the its code.

“I can get  another one-” Lavi tries to volunteer, but he’s immediately cut off.

“It’s fine.” the answer is curt he notices the way that he bites the inside of his cheek to control himself from clicking his tongue again or letting out a curse.

_Cute_ , it’s the first dopey thought in his mind.

“Gorgeous _and_ diligent!” he coos without thinking.

That attracts the beautiful steely blues to him, mustering the fiercest glare he has seen from someone not related to the superhero business.

“What?”

“Aren’t you tired doing so much work? Here and the coffee shop? And running in my thoughts all day long?” he smiles and runs a hand through his hair in a seductive way, flexing just enough to show off but not pass off as cocky.

“Why don’t I buy you a drink somewhere to let out some steam?” he presses further.

The grit of his teeth is audible, as worrisome as the clenching of the first around the scanner  and his purchases start being almost thrown away carelessly to the side of the counter , all the while daring Lavi to persist even more.

He packs his purchases while humming and relishing the feeling of animosity towards him, leaving the store with a wave and a flirty ‘bye-bye’ and a note with his name clumsily written on the receipt.

~~

“You’re good to go kid.”

The first thing Lavi does after a clearance from the doctor is do a backflip in the middle of his apartment, where he’s been checked. He winces but tries to hide it out of childishness.

The doctor shakes her head, eyes exasperated; she’s dealt with too many injured superheroes to not know how he just itch to go into the field again. The two other women she shares this ‘special clientele’ can verify.

“of course you’d be ignoring me the second you’re in the clear.”

He takes two dramatic strides towards her, “Oh my dear healing angel, are you thinking so little of me?”

“Yes.”

“Ouch. My ribs have just been healed but my heart is hurt anew.” A indifferent shrug and a smug smirk are all he gets.

 “In case the pain gets too intense, take the pills I gave you. And don’t overdo it with the missions.” She reprimands.

“I can’t stop where and when the evil comes forward.”  he’s whacked in the head.

“I’ve informed Dark Boots to keep an eye on you, only this way I can sleep in peace and keep you alive for five more seconds.”

He pales at the thought of Lenalee lurking around like a predator while he’s in patrol.

Packing up her things, the doctor sighs suddenly and looks at him once again.

“You really should be careful.”

Her tone catches his attention; the conflict between the strict and professional doctor and the caring friend or relative worries.

“Haha!” he rubs the back of his neck, “What’s that all of the sudden, do I appear that weak to be fuzzed over for a couple of ribs?”

“Don’t play coy with me Junior. Maybe next time I won’t be able to sew you back up. Again.” She silences him with her sharp turn of tone. She softens again promptly after and steps close to ruffle his hair even worse than it already is.

“Pills. Rest. I’m always watching.”

She greets him goodbye at the door, looking around for any suspicious activity, but none so far.

“Better hope I don’t see you soon.” She warns. A shiver runs down his spine.

The night goes on like the rest, searching and absorbing information and falling asleep slumped on his chair, resulting in him waking up with a sore back.

~~

“As much as I want to make Allen jealous by taking all your time, this is just unnecessary.” he flexes his arms dramatically, “I feel spectacular.”

Lenalee’s stare indicates that she’s unimpressed more than words ever could.

“I won’t let you dive into a mission this early, Lavi. A week more will make sure your body is in top shape.”

He pouts, “My body is always in top shape, Lena.”

Another unimpressed stare, “You literally have London’s top heroes feed you out of pity.”

“And I really should pump up my security! Also…not anymore! My beautiful robot sidekick is on the last stages and I’ve put cooking settings in! Just a little while longer and I’m never going to starve again!”

“Or eat junk food, I hope.”

“…We’ll see.” He turns his attention to the approaching establishment and a skittish feeling starts humming in the air.

From what Lenalee told him, voluntarily and absolutely not because of Lavi’s not so dignified pleads, what days she is sure Kanda works at the café, preventing himself from being an absolute creep and search the store’s data. And at this time, he made sure not to look like a sunken shipwreck.

They enter the store and the excitement fades when he can’t find bluish-black long hair; it immediately comes back with vengeance when Kanda comes out of the staff room with his uniform shirt on and some gloriously tight jeans.

Him and Lenalee reach a table, with him almost stumbling his way there, and plays on his head possible conversations. Knowing what he has deduced and was told about Kanda, it will be no easy feat, as his current crush seems to tend on the asocial side of people.

Lavi himself, being a blooming extrovert and due to his job, has learnt to deal with all kinds of people, including aliens, and has never had a problem before. He pounding heartbeat and anticipation in his veins say otherwise about now.

“Lena, have I told you I’m in love?” He sighs dreamily.

Lenalee sighs too, but with another sentiment and karate chomps his bicep, making him wince in pain.

“OW! Why did you do that?”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“So little faith in me. Do my feelings even matter to you?”

“Well, if you say the same phrase all the time, duh.” She waves him off without batting an eyelash.

“This time is serious.”

“Also heard that before.”

He throws her mild glare, “You sound too much like Allen.”

Lenalee meets his stare evenly, unrelenting until she glances over his shoulder at Kanda and gives him a friendly wave and a genuine but tight smile. Lavi turns his head to stare too but the barista is looking back at the machines; out of all the machines he could be jealous of (rockets, cool guns etc.) an espresso maker wasn’t even one of the options.

“You were excited before!” he protests but it comes out as a childish, confused whine.

“I thought it was your usual fascination for beautiful people. I didn’t think you’d stick around much. And a civilian nonetheless! You know the dangers Lavi!”

Facing his friend again, he smiles reassuringly, “You worry too much.”

“I’m making sure you don’t throw all caution out the window.”

“You’re dating Allen! He’s the personification of writing us all off and throwing caution-and bad guys- out the window.” He nudges her playfully.

The guilty and playful smile fighting her frown is enough proof that he’s right.

“I want to say that I appreciate the fact that you think of me as so charming and good at flirting and swooning people! I mean, judging by last time we met, I might get rejected and decked in the face which will really suck but also might be kinda hot-” she glares, “My point is, I’m serious about trying, you know?”

Despite seeming carefree, childish and reckless, he’s not naïve to go with every flow that he comes across. He chooses which are worth it.

And whatever the outcome, the flow named Kanda is worth at least testing the waters.

“You never listen to me anyway, so why do I bother.” She nods, “Good luck getting decked in the face.”

“I will. And you,” he pokes her side, causing her to giggle, “will get to here all about it. including my fantasies. Especially my fantasies.” he sticks out his tongue and stands up, noticing her roll of the eyes.

Putting his forearms on the counter, he puts on a charming smile and waits for the barista to face him.

Kanda seems surprised to see him, showed by the miniscule widening of his sharp eyes and Lavi’s own glints in mischief.

“Hello again. You’re looking radiant today also.” he says with successful smoothness.

“What do you want?” is the snappish response.

“To stare into your eyes forever, to know what hair products you use, intergalactic peace, take your pick.”

The scorching hot glare tells him to dial it back a notch or else he’ll surely get decked in the face.

“Just and cappuccino, thank you Kanda-kun.”

 “It’s five pounds.”, he says evenly, holding back the vulgarity and punching the numbers on the cashier in a close to literal way.

Lavi doesn’t lose his smile, and happily hands the money to the contrasting and lithe hand.

“With what characters are you writing it?”

“Wait in the other counter for you order.” _right now_ the tone implies.

“Thank you very much Kanda-kun. I’m still waiting for that call, you know~” He sing songs and shuffling away from the building rage; he feels slightly bad for the person next in the line.

He goes back to a very impatient and agitated Lenalee with a sheepish smile.

“I think I am doing fantastically.”

“He was ready to strangle you with a straw.”

“Don’t kinkshame me.” he grins cheekily.

Lenalee drops the conversation before Lavi can make it too weird with his sexcapades and takes a sip of the coffee. They make small talk and he gets swatted more than once when she thinks Lavi’s being a creep with his staring.

At one instance, their eyes meet and he gives Kanda a wink, although it comes out as a blink due to him having one eye. Kanda, in turn, he uses both of those gems to attempt telepathically bury him six meters underground.

~~

The work at the museum was fun, tending to boring. He doesn’t need much exercise to go a few rounds around the Museum library and arrange the archives. The last person left and now he was all alone for a couple of hours until closing time.

And instead of staring at the wall, he pulls out one of his laptops and checks the news and data bases for new cases that came up focusing on that, and not on the recipe research for his bot until it’s time to head home to another stakeout.

He’s on his couch looking at cheesecake recipes when he gets the signal from Allen for backup.

In less than a minute, he has his armor and mask and activates his security system before he heads out.

The place where Allen sent the signal was in one of the largest shopping areas of the city and especially a really famous jewelry shop that’s currently being robbed. Lavi doesn’t really see the need for him to be there, especially when Lenalee arrives at the same time as him.

“Did he tell you anything?” he asks puzzled.

She shakes her head, “he seemed really distressed though, it must be really urgent.”

Just then, Allen Walker in his Crown Clown costume is flying out through store’s window. He has cuts and bruises all over his body and his mutated arm has serious burns that are almost sizzling.

Lenalee is trying to make Allen stay awake while Lavi scans the area with the thermodetector and the energy readings. The results make him curse to himself.

“What are their powers?” he asks and it takes Allen a couple of coughs to respond in a raspy voice.

“Electricity…. Absorbs… energy.”

“Well then, I’m officially fucked.” He laughs, but he’s not the least thinking of backing down.

“Are you going to be okay? the medicine will take a little to kick in.” Lenalee asks her boyfriend in concern and when he nods, she kisses his forehead and joins Lavi.

“That was disgusting.” He gets a punch in the gut for that, “There is literally a criminal that can kick my ass inside. I don’t need any more plummeting.” He protests.

“You’re just jealous.” She takes fighting position.

Lavi points the spot his readings say the mutant is, “Extremely. I take the ambush. There is a back door in the east part of the store in the narrow alley. Stay safe, m’kay?” with a nod, the get into action.

Lavi takes the back door of the shop while searching for any potential civilians. To his relief there is none and they have plenty of space to destroy in their heroic attempts without getting charged in the least after. The perks of being a superhero.

He is constantly hearing Lena grunting and trying to talk the criminal out of this, a classic move of hers, but the criminal is no budging at all, punching and kicking in efforts to hurt her.

While getting inside as silently as he can, he takes a second to study the electrical systems of the emergency exit. The lights are not even flickering, completely dead and there is nothing running even inside the wires. Extreme caution is more than advised. Luckily he has a function similar to what Allen said about the criminal, only his absorbs the energy enough to not get him barbequed.  He has to use other methods, like binds and sleep shots. If those don’t work there is always the poison gas he also had equipped- that will do the trick.

Except the right timing doesn’t come because he hears Lenalee being hurt badly and he just has to act before anything worse happens.

He gets up and throws the paralyzer but it’s dodged easily.

“You finally made a move!” they say with a fairly deep and cheerful voice, facing in his direction and surprising Lavi, “I thought you were just gonna stand there and watch me take this all with me.” along with the smug tone, his voice also carries an slight accent. It’s familiar and he should have been able to place it whole seconds ago but he’s immediately engaged in a closed combat battle with the other.

Even if he hadn’t heard it from Allen, it’s take milliseconds to deduce that the person is a mutant of some sort; they’re  abnormally fast, and the walls crumble to the hits that were meant for Lavi and more specifically his defensive force field which is negated and useless in this case. They’re trained too, as the hits are not blind and Lavi’s blood is pumping in his body, the faint annoyance in his ribs coming back and making him hiss out a curse. It becomes louder when kick is landed on that specific spot.

Even though it seems to be a problem, Lavi has trained since he remembers himself and has taken worse damage. He can take hits.

The plan changes by the second, as each movement is an information. Dominant hand: Left, Dominant Leg: right  to attack, left to balance, if reversed, the flow of the movement breaks enough to grand him opportunities. The tail helps a lot with that and it doesn’t take an amateur to know that he will be in trouble should he touch it.

They impatiently, even if trained, try coaxing him to hit back and not be a coward with a colourful dictionary that shifts to Spanish more often than not.

“Come on man, is that all you got?” they ask in annoyance.

“Well, it’s been a long day and this is starting to get tedious. So if you just stop and let us take you in, that’d be fabulous.” He coaxes back. Besides wanting to be an asshole for shits and giggles, his words have a deeper meaning. He’s surely not the only one holding back. His readings have shown a weird energy or aura around the hits that doesn’t happen with only physical prowess and super speed.

Besides, Lenalee is slowly coming to again and gets ready for her own attack.

In fact, he gets his answer either way, as his opponent smirks and the mentioned lightning of all fucking things starts crawling on their skin. He wouldn’t have even noticed it without his night vision as it is unnaturally black and it uses the dark night as camouflage.

The pieces quickly form the picture in his mind and the questions and theories he had dissipate into pure fact and it’s one of those that doesn’t comfort Lavi very much.

“I’ve seen weirder.” He states nonchalantly, gauntlet’s energy fully charged to a higher volume than before, ready to attack and blast the bastard off at any moment.

With a wide grin, his opponent lunches, faster than before, aiming directly at Lavi’s face.

Lavi moves to the left, but he realizes his mistake too late to fix it.

The tail he was trying so hard to avoid elongates and wraps around his right arm and electrocutes him.

Luckily, the gauntlet absorbs the electrical current, resulting in miraculously not burning his skin or even rendering him unconscious with the price of the device completely short circuiting and dying on him, turning into a dead weight.

He doesn’t take it off however, not only due to the attachment he has to his creations, grabbing the offending tail, twisting it around his arm further for a better grip and pulling the robber towards him in a risky move, using the dead piece of technology to twist and break one of his arms and one of the legs that tries to kick him cruelly with a sickening sound and curses in Spanish. Lavi doesn’t let go even when it hurts so much.

The moment the attack stops, Dark Boots strikes and he lets go of the tail. She jumps and kicks them in the head and sends them to the opposite wall with a destructive slam, breaking it. Lavi too binds them with one of his non-electrical gadgets.

“Are you okay?” Lena asks.

Breathing heavily he gives her a thumbs up, “Great, just magnificent. Just let me sit on…” gravity interjects, “the floor is nice too.” he throws his head back at the wall and scans himself; dislocated shoulder, two broken fingers, a whole lot of bruises and cuts and swollen jaw.

Not the worst thing that happened. Looking back a Lena and scans her too, she’s in a little worse place but nothing grave.

He takes the robber in for the first time since the beginning of the fight. They are not even wearing a mask, probably because they were confident they would get away with it, with no cameras or evidence at all. Now it just helps Lavi keep and search their identity without any boring searching through data.  Short hair in various shades of blue (including the one that makes him miss a certain grumpy cashier/barista), sky blue eyes and a too pale face. He takes note of the scar on the bridge of his nose and the painted triangles of pink and blue under the eyes.

The steps closer to further inspect the suit the other is wearing, still on alert, but with added curiosity. Now that he can see more clearly and not actively trying to not die, he studies the material of the suit the other is wearing. It’s not casual and dark clothes, like most robbers would wear, no, this seems like a proper hero or villain costume with a material Lavi sees for the first time. It’s white and …completely organic, his readings show and even though it gives the impression of an armor, from the way his opponent could fight so freely tells of its flexibility. Sharp  edges of all lengths adorn the armor from neck to ankle, with the longest of sweeping blades prodding from the side of the forearms, many of them stained with some of his blood from when they managed to strike him.

“Nothing fatal to both of us. My repulsor however,” he waves said machine, “definitely not okay.”

“Didn’t you make it resistant to electricity?”

“Yeah, common electricity that we use. Not black one that completely absorbs and maybe kills forms of energy. Here,” he throws her the first sample, “Take that to your brother and tell him to call me with what he finds.” He pauses between the words as the pain makes itself comfortable in his body and Lena is on him in an instant.

“…and you just recovered.” She sighs tiredly, “Whatever am I gonna do with you?”

“Geez, would blowing my ego a little do you that bad. We were pretty badass tonight.”

“it’s already at hazardous degree.” She laughs and it turns into a cough, “Allen called the ORDER a little ago. They’ll be here shortly.”

Lavi groans in despair; that’s just fucking great. Reports and interference. Fan-fucking-tastic. And in this condition. Oh god, he has to go get healed again. Doc is going to hand him his ass!

Cracking of bones interrupt the content atmosphere, he turn with alarm to see the bones Lavi thought he crushed rearrange from underneath the skin, create and put themselves back together and the still unnamed robber opens their eyes and look directly in Lavi’s masked face with barely concealed emotions. From the anger they project, Lavi is getting into fighting position, sensing Lenalee do the same, putting his mask back with one voice command.

Anger visibly turns into frustration and frustration is soon replaced by a knowing feeling that many criminals have when they understand their loss.

In a swift motion, one of the long blades on the other’s arm elongates even more and with a whip, it breaks the wall behind them, allowing a chance to escape. At the same time, a massive black electric wave is blasted at them.

They don’t manage to avoid the attack and catch up to them in time. They give up soon when they are close to a packed civilian area and head back to do the tedious bureaucracy to avoid causing panic or worse.

During the ORDER’s dogs questioning, all three of them are all nerves and hypertension with Lavi talking too fast for his words to be written down and Lena is changing between Chinese and English back and forth in also rapid tempo. Normally, he would be all up for amused and maybe sometimes false translation but he also wasn’t in the mood. Allen was tense too, but his way of managing it is to be as calm a possible, like a sane person.

He ended up doing almost all the talk and the relaxation exercises until Lavi snapped and yelled that he’d give a written report.    

~~

The next however days pass in a blur to the point where it must have been weeks passing by without him remembering and not with the best mood; all-nighters of police procedure, studying new found matter and crumbling blueprints for alien electricity resistance while doped with coffee and painkillers can do that to someone.

The only contact he has with the outside is Komui with whom he discusses the DNA samples and with Lenalee and Allen to check on each other and not go insane due to isolation.

Research results are taking his whole time and concentration. Like he assumed, the matter is completely organic with excessive healing factor (he actually yells curses out loud for being distracted and not even assuming that during the encounter) and every test he runs comes with results that push him into different rabbit holes that he can’t take his eyes off of the screens.

Shit is happening, has been happening under his nose, and he’s been blind to it for this long.

When his notifications tell him that it’s time to go to work, Lavi cherishes it like the sweetest freedom. It makes him finally have a shower and shave, clean and doll himself up and breathes the air of the city as he walks to the Museum with his own slow tempo and a smile. During work, he’s not taking any of his own laptops out or take any books, opting instead to be a little more sociable with the visitors and colleagues and walking a lot in the hallways. He is lucky to engage in some playful and meaningless talk with some on them (it came to borderline flirting with some of the lovely ladies at some times, but Lavi’s heart belongs to another until further notice.)

To his dismay, his shift ends sooner than he longed for. Not ready to go back home and deal with a mountain of work, he decides to take a walk in the city, and drown some brain cells in alcohol.

London is as crowded as even and it makes it difficult to find a not too packed bar in the big streets. Luckily, he’s memorizes even the smallest of roads, so he’s taking every little street until he finds a nice looking place to enter. It’s an older place with signs of recent renovation and the smell of alcohol is not suffocating, just pleasant.

When he enters, he’s not bumping into anyone as the place is not full but there is a decent amount of patrons in it. instead of getting a table alone in the event he starts thinking again, he takes a seat in one of the stools on the bar’s long and spacious counter, right across from the delicious looking wall of bottles of alcohol, colorful and enchanting, with the view of the rest of the place for him to observe whenever he fancies with a simple roll of the stool.

While he waits for one of the bartenders to serve the other costumers, Lavi starts observing them. One of them must be the owner of the place, he deduces. His stance and manner of speaking indicates the most experience. There is a tall woman with short blonde hair and with a boisterous smile that turns from friendly to threatening glare as she chats up various patrons at once, coming back and forth the counter waiting the tables with a couple of others.

He watches her with an amused smirk for a while as he waits, reading the threat she gives a guy on her lips about breaking his arm if he doesn’t keep them to herself.

Then, a familiar looking ponytail catches the corner of his eye and he almost causes himself a whiplash as he turns on the other side.

At first, he’s utterly sure that it’s the exhaustion that’s made him hallucinate and he should probably call somebody to pick him up before he makes it worse when plastered.

But when he hears the giggles of the girls a few seats away from him looking at the same bartender, his heart skips a beat.

“Hey!” he calls rather loudly but the people around stare, but not the person he actually calls.

“Hey, you!” he calls louder, tiredness lowering down his sense of danger and he finally gets the result he craves.

And a little more than that as Kanda is on his face in milliseconds, glowing and glowering him to bury himself on the ground.

“The fuck did you just call me?” he hisses.

Lavi raises and eyebrow and tilts his head in confusion, “What, you?”

The other grabs him by the collar and pushes inside Lavi’s personal bubble.

“Who fucking told you?!” he growls in a whisper, only for him to hear.

“Tell me wh-” he starts asking but finally the wires in his head connect and he blinks once, twice before grinning. He humors Kanda and asks with feinted innocence, “Wait, is that your name?”

Well, if Kanda wanted to annihilate him before, now he must have found the resolve to face the action’s consequences, “Don’t. Call. Me. That. Again.” 

“I didn’t know!” he hurries out when the grip tightens. He’s surprisingly and mildly terrified, and he’s been calm staring death in the face more than once before. “I meant Y-O-U.” he’s witnessing the realization sinking in Kanda’s –Yuu’s as it most likely written with latin characters- face, before gaining a pink tint in the cheekbones and once again wonders if he’s delirious; but then again, he’s not sure if he can even imagine such beauty in his mind.

Kanda lets him go, shockingly gently instead of the expecting throwing him and coughs into his own fist. There is red in the pierced tips of his ears and the also pierced back of his neck.

There’re a couple of people still staring at the both of them, including the girls near him, but he musters the most charming grin he has to reassure them successfully. Others soon resume their conversations.

“Is everything alright?” the old man working with Kanda asks them, pointedly looking at Lavi with a friendly hand on Kanda’s shoulder. The latter shrugs it off casually, like it’s something that happens a lot.

Lavi is about to start explaining the situation when Kanda interrupts him with a click of his tongue.

“It’s fine old man, go bother the new guys.” he grunts out. The older gives Lavi a last look, this one more gentle and amused then a pointed look at Kanda who nods.

“What do you want?”

“Whiskey on the rocks.” That gets a raised eyebrow out of Kanda that has Lavi’s mischievous side taking over, “Do you want proof of my age, Yuu?” he drags.

Without an answer Kanda quickly makes it drink and places it before him, “It’s on the fucking house.”

Lavi chuckles and flutters his eye, “Oh? First you let me get away for calling you Yuu and then you buy me a drink? I was supposed to buying you one, remember?”

A snort escaped the other and Lavi feels his chest flutter, “You look like you’ll drink more than one bottle, so giving you one for free isn’t going to cost anything.”

Lavi revels in the burn of the whiskey and sighs contently, “What a nice way of saying I look like shit.”

“You’re a paying costumer.” is all he says before he leaves to tend some new people, leaving Lavi longingly staring at his back, how the white shirt rolled to the elbows and black vest and matching slacks are way better that the horrendous polo shirts he’s seen before.

The first glass is finished quickly and before he can use it as an excuse for more interaction, Kanda comes to him with the bottle at hand.

“So,” he trails off, “I went to the coffee shop a couple of times these days and I didn’t see you there.”

“I got fired.” He answers with a shrug.

“Really?”

“Chain stores like these don’t hire for more than a year at most, everyone can be replaced there.”

“Oh,” Lavi lamely says, earning another snort from the other. He’s getting good that this.

“Don’t looks so devastated. I was going to leave anyway. It was only for while this place was renovated.”

“You seem used to getting fired.” Lavi teases, relaxed by his now third drink as he’s craved to be during those hellish days.

Kanda hesitates at that, probably not wanting to share too much information with a stranger like him; Lavi almost pouts at the thought of him just being a stranger.

So in the end he only shrugs in indifference.

He refuses to let this conversation die, “I’ve seen you at the coffee shop, at the store and now here. Tell me you’re not secretly fighting crime so I can relax.” _Oh the irony of the words,_ he thinks.

“It’s not that many idiot.” He refills his glass, “University students have as many hours.”

“Huh, you’re kind of right there. From Lena and Allen, it sounds about right.” His smile widens into a grin, “I finished uni in a year, without attending to class, I wouldn’t know.”

Kanda’s deadpan stare reminds him of Miss Warp’s ‘no-nonsense’ one when he’s being cocky. He’s sure that the latter uses it with her kids all the time.

‘Do I look like a give a fuck?’ Kanda challenges with his eyes.

“Relax Yuu! Can’t a guy show off once in a blue moon?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I thought I was in the clear here!” he whines.

Kanda makes a grimace at his loudness, “I can’t punch paying costumers unless I give them warnings first.” he stares at Lavi dead in the eye as he utters those words.

And by all the laws of the universe, even if he wasn’t in the process of getting wasted he’d be this turned on by that.

Lavi loses the count of times that his glass is refilled, but he honestly can’t find himself giving a shit, as it’s Kanda that does it (maybe it’s a ploy to get him going and paying and he has to admit the owner is a fucking genius).

It comes to the point where he finally couldn’t stand straight anymore, laying his weight on the counter, face too planted on the cool wood and glass. His hair is a mess due to his hands roaming them too much and his uncovered eye is seeing blur even though he recover from it easily before he drinks the next glass.

“Yuu!” he slurs, “Why didn’t you call me!?” he whines loudly. There aren’t as many people now and he doubts the ones the ones still here are sober enough to care.

“Don’t call me that.” is the irritable answer. It keeps up with the motif of the night; the more Lavi call him Yuu, the more irritation becomes visible.

“Answer my question!” he demands with the tone of a petulant child.

“I don’t have your number.”

“It was on the receipt!” he all by cries, letting his cheek leave an imprint on the counter and his breath staining the glass.

“I must’ve thrown it away then.” There is no remorse in his voice, but also a whole ton of amusement.

“Y-O-U!!” he giggles as he spells the word before he goes back to complaining, “are sooooo cruuueel!” he lazily points a finger at his general direction. “I waited for Y-U-U” another giggle, “to call me.”

“Oh really?”

Lavi now looks up, pouting and not raising his head away from the counter and holding his glass out casually, “Of course! I mean, not aaaall the time, I was busy y’know? And I had to sleep a least an hour. But! But! Butt~!” he laughs again to himself, “When I had my phone with me, yeah, I was waiting.”

With an absentminded hum Kanda ignores him refills his glass once more. Lavi’s everything is starting to get blurry to think properly (finally) to question the doubtful silence.

~~

Enchanting smells rise his will to wake up from his peaceful slumber.

In contrast, the headache that immediately comes after is like he’s being pulled and held down by strong gravity.

“Oh fuck!” he curses and rubs his eye.

“Morning!” Another voice calls from somewhere near.

Looking around, he realizes this is not his own appartment, but Allen’s, as Timcampy is perched on his knee, salivating in on his pants as he watches Allen cooking a shiton of food and flying to sit on his white hair when to alert him of Lavi’s awake state.

“Wha-“ he pauses with a cough, his throat dry as a desert.

“There is water on the coffee table. Painkillers too.” Allen calls again without turning around. With the water and drug’s help, his vision is getting better despite the splitting headache as he drags himself up in protest of his wobbly legs, miraculously survives going through the living room and sits on one of the chairs in the kitchen, right on the source of the food.

“I feel like shit.” He grumbles as he starts eating, not waiting for Allen to come. Timpampy shares his thoughts as his round body settles on the table.

“Well, you chose to drink like four bottles of whiskey last night. Surprised you didn’t end up in the hospital.”

“Reinforced internal organs.” He answers, “Very useful.”

Allen looks like he wants to ask but refrains from it. “You owe me for dragging your ass out of the bar and not calling Lenalee.”

An involuntary shudder runs through him at the thought of waking up and enduring Lenalee’s wrath.

“I get it, trust me. But I don’t remember calling you.”

Allen’s face darkens and becomes sour at the same time.

“ _You_ didn’t.” his eyebrows furrow deeply, “But Stupid Kanda called the first contact on your phone, which unfortunately happened to be me. It took me an hour to detach you from there and leave; a whole hour in that asshole’s presence.”

It’s his turn to not ask further about this seemingly touchy subject, “Okay then, tell me what I did while wasted. Hit me, I’m ready.”

“While I was there, you did the store’s finance, argued with yourself about how Kanda’s hair is so beautiful that they should rename the constellation of Coma Berenices and about which precious store is more like Kanda’s eye color. Then you wrote your name and phone number in like a dozen napkin and coasters and give them to Kanda saying that you’ll wait for his call. Last and not least, while I was dragging you home you sang ‘I will always love you’ with a strange off key emphasis on ‘you’ twice and passed out in my arms. You’re fucking welcome.”

Lavi’s face was torn between flushing bright red from embarrassment or paling more with every word uttered. Putting his hands on his still pained head, he lets out a groan and a long ‘fuck’.

The flash of a camera snaps him back out of it and he glares at Allen how revels at his misfortune.

Kicking the table to startle the other, he rushes fast to grab the phone and uses his technological possession ability to check what data the other has recorded, which proves to be videos of whatever he had described, and deletes it from both the phone and the message line it was send to before they can be seen, earning protests from the other.

“If you don’t want Komui decapitating you, no one will know.” except Lena who’s going to find a way, as she always does sooner or later. He’d much prefer the later.

He doesn’t wait for an reaction from Allen as he takes his things and makes the truly shameful walk of shame to his apartment.

~~

A few days later, in the midst of surveilling and organizing an ambush of a drug smuggling case with Scorpion (who  this time gave him more coupons up front) he senses his phone ring. Not letting his eyes from the computer, he lazily hacks his own phone with an enchantment. However when he peeks at the screen he has a double take and screeches in the com.

“Dude, what the hell?” Scorpion calls from the other line.

“Sorry sorry, it’s nothing. Procced as instructed.” He calls strangely happy to the others.

 

**From: Unknown Number**

**It’s Kanda. Are u still alive?**

 

And Lavi, being even more overdramatic when overwhelmed with happiness, he waits until the next morning to run at the grocery store, hoping Kanda is on a shift.

“Oh it’s you.” are the first words the other says to him and Lavi beams.

“You called.” He catches his breath.

“It’d be bothersome if you died on my shift with how much you drank.” Kanda argues.

“You called because you were worried~” He coos.

The other stops restacking the selves and gives Lavi an ‘you’re already making me regret this’ look “You could have just texted back a fucking yes, not come here like a creep.”

“I wanted to ask you in person.”

“Calling would have the same effect and I wouldn’t have seen your face.”

“Don’t lie, Yuu. I know you crave seeing my face just  like I crave seeing yours.”

Kanda’s glare is so vicious that one of the costumers has to cough in distress to interrupt them.

~~

Real life kicks in the ass really hard sometimes, Lavi muses as he stares at his blueprints with dark bags under his eyes.

As he finally started physical training again after recovering from his injuries, time has become less Lavi’s day and more Bookman’s. His sleep schedule is  as chaotic as it can be, sometimes even not sleeping at night but at day instead. Between training at the ORDER’s grounds, helping at its science department, he’s either at home working, creating and updating, or at the Museum, where he also works on his laptops. Personal projects have taken the backseat, robot included and his equipment has become the priority. Due to that, his place is a mess and his diet even messier.

The only times when he can breathe fresh air is on patrols in the middle of the night, and even then, he’s senses are hypertense at the slightest evidence that something’s wrong.

As a result, for a while his only way of communication is with texting as he’s afraid that if he speaks, he’ll sprout out frogs. With how many sleepless hours, his mind is in a chaos that only recognizes day and night but hours have mixed together, he’s put an alarm to when civilians are most certainly awake and texts Kanda, asking about his surely busy day, chiming in something funny, whether is a lame pickup line or a pun or a funny historical trivia. Occasionally, he talks about his shift on the museum to show that he actually has a job.

To his blurry surprise, he gets responses. Mostly short sentences with no punctuation, but they are often and it adds to Lavi’s individual motivation, aside from the one duty and concepts like that loom over him.

~~

All the unnatural lack of sleep eventually gets him in the form of accidentally detonating a toxic gas in his apartment which cause everyone to shit their pants. In his own humble opinion, the apartment was perfectly sealed and he’d made himself immune to the toxins before testing the bomb.

But no, they had to call Doctor Healjoy (he starts getting the humor of the alias- well played miss doctor) to knock him out like he’s dangerous or something. Fools, this wasn’t even his final form!

Anyway, when he wakes up, his kitchen table is full of healthy foods and Lavi’s first thought is that he’s finally mastered the teleportation spells and they took him in the amazon with how much green there is on his table. Everyone has left written complaints about cleaning himself and the apartment up and that he’s forbidden of stepping on the training grounds for the rest of the day.

Which gives him the perfect opportunity of making a visit to the bar.

With a deep breath, he enters with confident strides to the counter, easily spotting the dark bluish black ponytail.

He refrains from calling out as he witnesses the current subject of his affections subtly twisting the extended arm of one of the costumers, while he threatens him in a low voice. Lavi can decipher the words and they bring an amused smirk to his face.

“Well, if it isn’t the drunken Casanova!” the girl that was here last time too, slaps him on his back with force. Luckily she announced her appearance before Lavi let his instincts put her into a chokehold or immobilize her in some way, “How’s it going? Finally the shame left you and came to try again.”

“Nah, I was just busy! Shames like these make life spicier, don’t cha think? Besides, I got Yuu’s number so I guess I wasn’t that bad.”

“Let’s be honest, he probably pitied you.” they laugh together at that.

“You say pity, I say charm.”

“Dude, I was there. You were like a kicked puppy.”

“Charm nonetheless!” he protests and she waves him off.

Eventually, the bothersome costumer is escorted out, and Kanda is slowly walking in a pissed of fashion towards Lavi, muttering curses in Japanese thinking no one is understanding him.

“It seems I came at the right time, right Yuu?” he calls in the same language.

Both of the employees look at him like he’s grown a second head.

“You understand him?” the girl, whose tag said Joanne, gapes at him.

“Of course!” he beams and an arm is pulling him down by the shoulders.

“You have to come every day.” she stares at him dead in the eye, “He’s always speaking Japanese and no one knows if he’s cursing at us or if he’s being his usual uptight self.”

“Well…” he pretends to think and turn to look at Kanda.

His eye widens as he notices the longing and forlorn feeling under the surprise, before he cover it completely.

He settles on clicking his tongue in annoyance and glare at his colleague until she leave with an exasperated ‘geez’.

“Maybe Yuu is shy about asking me to come more often.” He put his chin on his palm changing to Japanese.

“You wish, Usagi.” Kanda responds in the same language.

Now it’s Lavi’s turn to be surprised.

“I got a nickname!” he sniffles dramatically.

“It’s not a compliment.” the other snaps.

“Nevertheless, I feel you have a deeper connection you know?”

A scoff, “You wish.”

“Is it because my name sounds like that? I didn’t know you shared my love of puns.”

“It’s because you’re a horny bastard all year long.”

“Ooh.” He put his hand into his chest, “Straight through the heart, Yuu.”

The small quip of Kanda’s lips is not going unnoticed by him, but he doesn’t comment.

~~

Surprise fucking surprise, it’s the energy absorbing asshole that tries to rob the fucking bank in three am in the fucking morning.

“Dude, seriously? Give it a rest.” He sighs and charges his new force field, the signal to the ORDER already sent.

It obviously turns into a fight, a rematch from the first time with more frustration and force than then. Now that Lavi knows about the regenerative factor, he hits harder, ditching the defense. Maybe he’s secretly frustrated from staying indoors so much and Lenalee and Allen can be of only so much help during training.

Perhaps it wasn’t the best decision he made or the most thought out, as that fucking tail is wrapped around his leg and with a shock and pull lands him ass first on the ground. The weight of another person is straddling him while he’s disorientated and he’s punched right on his face, making his mask flicker out and expose his face.  His eyepatch reacts, tiny vein like lines, like fallen eyelashes and short-lived to someone that isn’t looking too close, appear in patterns known only to few for second on the patch’s fabric but also on the area near his eye, like the socket and his cheekbone, before accumulating back on the patch and flickering out of sight again.

He gets punched more than once before he can fend them off, activating his new energy blast, one mixed by his own two hands with various forms of magic and science.

Well, his nose is probably broken and he spits blood on the tiles, grunting as he gets up, new blast charging.

But it seems that the money is more important that the fight, unlike last time, and the vault of the bank opens to the robber.

Back on his feet, he rushes to put a stop into this until the ORDER comes and is successful for a little as the fight is one-sided. With dodges and flexibility, they’re able to leave with a minimal amount of cash, leaving him alone and seething to snap and the audibly approaching officers of the organization.

~~

His two closest friends have apparently had enough of his not-so-subtle in their opinion (in his, he’s being just a little moody-which is vastly different). So they decide that they three of them take the night off and just chill with shitty movies and the expensive alcohol Allen stole from his absent mentor in Allen’s apartment. Lenalee’s place was out of the question as mister Cerberus (otherwise known as Komui Lee) is going to flip his shit at Lena drinking alone with two guys and none of them want to set a foot on the garbage place that is Lavi’s place. For their rudeness, he makes absolutely sure he sits and stands between them for the whole night, like a vengeful third wheel.

He doesn’t get hopelessly drunk as the alcohol is less and shared, but he gets buzzed enough to kill the pain on his recovering face. Allen too becomes just tipsy.

Lenalee on the other hand…is thrashed.

It’s easy to forget how lightweight she is with the rarity of her drinking and her taking care of everyone around her. Now, with hugging Allen to death, making kissy faces at him, signing off key pop songs from a decade ago and sitting them down to give them make up turorials from youtube in neck-breaking speed, she looks her age; without the frowns and the worried furrow of her eyebrows. He lets himself get a rainbow makeup, smiling as he hears her giggle and laugh in glee like they haven’t seen the shit they have.

“No smiling Lavi! I have to put the lipstick right on you!”

“Lenalee, it’s all over his cheek.” Allen snickers kindly, looking just as ridiculous with an emo goth make up on him.

“Shh!” she points a finger at him, “You don’t know about couture.”

“Yeah Allen, go weep about MCR not getting back together or something.” Lavi agrees, “Lena, make sure I look like fucking unicorns puked on me!”

Needless to say that their goal of relaxing and forgetting themselves for tonight is more than accomplished.

~~

After a long and stressful mission, he makes another visit to the bar with a small succulent plant in hand and steely determination to finally ask Kanda out.

He makes a beeline to the bar but he finds Kanda occupied with someone else. They lock eyes and Lavi gives an awkward smile and a motion that he’ll wait.

Taking his usual seat, he taps his foot on the ground and revising his lines.

He perks up when Kanda comes to him, but the words he utters next perplex him.

“My friend wants to meet you.”

Both of his eyebrows raise. “What?”

Kanda rubs the back of his neck in a nervous and tired move dressed as casual, “He’s been asking me who I am texting all the time and he won’t shut up about it. He’s being pestering me.”

“Oh, that’s…fine.” he smiles, “Don’t be so nervous, Yuu. I’m going to make a great impression. Ypu don’t have to be ashamed of me!”

Kanda exasperated , a new voice echoes loudly at the bar.

“Yuu! I’m still here! Why did you leave?!”

“Shut up Alma, you’re going to get me fired!”

“Don’t be silly!” the new voice comes closer as Lavi tries to make the succulent plant disappear, “I know the owner adores you. So… where is the guy?”

“Here.” he points at him, “Lavi this is Alma. Alma this is Lavi.” His tone couldn’t be more monotonous and rushed to be done with this torture.

He’s most welcoming smile evaporates when his eye meets a too fucking familiar face, the same one that gotten away from him fucking twice.

_Ah, shit._

He wonders if this is how an arch nemesis is made.

**Author's Note:**

> Hoped you enjoyed it!  
> I honestly don't know when the next chapter will come. My brain is just reaaally fried from writing this and a break is needed.  
> Any mistakes or inconsistencies are due to aforementioned fryness. I will probably fix them eventually.  
> Take care and see you in the next chapter (whenever it comes).


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